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In Explore Fossils! With 25 Great Projects, readers can expand their dinosaur obsessions into learning opportunities that take them beyond Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and even Tyrannosaurus rex to other animals, plants, and microbes that lived long before humans. Explore Fossils! introduces young readers to the history of life on Earth as revealed by fossils. Kids learn how fossils form and about the different types of fossils and the world of long ago-its landscape and the plants and animals that lived then. Scientists use radiometric dating to test fossils to discover when they were made, what organisms made them, what those organisms used for energy, what killed them, and a whole lot of other information. All from rocks! That's a lot of information stored under our feet.Activities include creating plaster fossils, using popcorn to illustrate radiometric dating, and exploring what might have caused mass extinctions by making a lava flow and simulating an asteroid impact.By studying the past, not only do students meet amazing plants and animals, they are also encouraged to consider their own role in geological time to make thoughtful hypotheses about the future.

Cynthia Light Brown is the author of several books for Nomad Press, including Amazing Kitchen Chemistry Projects You Can Build Yourself and Explore Rocks and Minerals! . She has 25 years of experience as an environmental consultant specializing in pollution prevention, toxicology, and using Geographic Information Systems for mapping n...

Praise for Explore Fossils! With 25 Great Projects School Library Connection, May 2016In this easy to read and well organized book, readers are introduced to fossils. . . Scattered throughout the text are 25 projects for the reader to create, including a supply list and step-by-step instructions. . . . Recommended" Booklist Online Exclusive 2/12/16'. . . Browsers, of course, will have a fine time, but this book is even better suited for STEM programs, including those at camps and in museums.' Publishers Weekly, January 2016"The Browns intersperse indoor and outdoor activities with information about fossils, dinosaur, and paleontology in this entry in the Explore Your World! series. One early experiment helps readers get a sense of geological time by taking a 10-minute walk: the first step correlates to the Earth's formation, four billion years ago; step 460 stands for the present day, and humans pop up at step 459 1/2. Relevant vocabulary terms (radioactive decay, chloroplasts, theropods) appear and are defined throughout, and Stone's cartoons feature a recurring pair of unnamed animal paleontologists (one is a pterosaur), as well as help illustrate the various experiments. Clear, straightforward writing helps introduce sometimes complex topics like radiometric dating, as well as how human understanding of dinosaurs has changed through research and discovery". Ages 7-10.Other books by Cynthia Light Brown Amazing Kitchen Chemistry Projects Roald Hoffmann, 1981 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry"Chemistry experiments in the kitchen! From mysterious oobleck to soda rockets, this book is the greatest fun. I can't wait to try some of these experiments. The grandchildren? They will have to wait." Explore Rocks and Minerals! 25 Great Projects, Activities, Experiments Booklist "This offering from the Explore Your World series introduces budding geologists to basic information about rocks and minerals. . . . Appended with the usual back matter, this is makes a good choice for classroom science units." Mapping and Navigation Marla Conn, Educational Consultant'. . . a perfect STEM title and a wonderful resource for students in grades 4?7. It encourages students to draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.' "